Some of the main concerns of the romantic literary circle in the early 19th century were the following:
- Nature: This movement was characterized for celebrating a deep appreciation of the beauties of nature, like peaceful and lighted landscapes or rural life settings, often idealized, while rejecting industrialization and social convention.
- Freedom of expression and imagination: Romantic artists often aimed to express their individuality, ideas and thoughts freely, putting emphasis on emotion, subjection, irrationality, imagination, and spontaneity, while expressing their opposition to the scientific rationalization of things that were common during the 18th century, to tyranny and to the conventional organization of society.
- Interest in the past: Romantics had a desire to appreciate, explore and examine their national history, origins, and cultural inheritance, and many artists sought to imitate native folklore, folk ballads and poetry, folk dance and music, and the medieval and Renaissance works.